The only thing Linux lacks of is a multimedia SDK, that supports OpenGL direct rendring without going through the ugly old X Windows calls.
Imagine Windows without DirectX, it would become the number one business application framework.
No no no no no …
SDL wraps X Windows, and other libs
I mean a thin layer lib that communicates directly with hardware even if X server, and other sound libs are not installed.
There has be some debate over that issue, some would like to see openGL as part of a core level and maybe get away from x-windows way of doing things.
Originally posted by Micro$oft:
[b]No no no no no …
SDL wraps X Windows, and other libs
I mean a thin layer lib that communicates directly with hardware even if X server, and other sound libs are not installed.
[/b]
I don’t understand this. Do you mean DirectX doesn’t use windows or any calls to the windowing system part of win32? OpenGL has nothing to do with X, glX does. And writing a glx-like module wich doesn’t use X but still has HW acceleration and all will simply repeat code allready present in X. And what would be the benefit of all this anyway (besides wasting coding time which could be spent in way more crucial things)?
OpenGL can work without X or any type of windowing system installed at all. It just makes it harder to bring OGL up and that is why people use X to setup OGL. I remember years ago playing OGL games in linux w/o X.
DX only works on windows because it depends on the win kernel and its window mangament. DX is alot more unstable then OGL, and that is why a version comes out every 6 months.
DirectFB AFAIK is just a light X implementation based on the framebuffer, it has nothing to do with GL. DirectFBGL is the GL implementation for DirectFB and as it says on the page its ripped off DRI code.
The best way to get communicate directly to X is through x86 Assembly
If you use DRI, then OpenGL will bypass the X protocol and directly access the hardware (except you are accessing a remote X server over network).
And, DirectX also doesn’t work without the windows GUI being installed. So there is no real difference between SDL and DirectX. Both use the windowing system to create windows (or fullscreen, which is technically nearly the same) and then let you access the graphics hardware directly (with OpenGL for SDL and Direct3D for DirectX).
Do you really think DirectX communicates with hardware directly without a middle layer? It also works on top of the window system, a graphics driver and a sound driver, just like SDL (with X11 being the windows system, DRI being the graphics driver and e.g. ALSA being the sound driver).
Originally posted by Micro$oft:
[b]No no no no no …
SDL wraps X Windows, and other libs
I mean a thin layer lib that communicates directly with hardware even if X server, and other sound libs are not installed.
[/b]
Do you think directx is thin as you say ? and do you think directx could communicate with hardware if you don’t install your hardware drivers ?
Concerning the other sound libs which are not installed, how to use them if they are not ?? well directx is a set of libraries unfortunately… and can’t do well things if you don’t install your graphic card or your sound card… just use directx in 640*480 16 colors with no sound, to play a game… how many will work ??
but maybe I misunderstood what you said…
Originally posted by Micro$oft:
The only thing Linux lacks of is a multimedia SDK, that supports OpenGL direct rendring without going through the ugly old X Windows calls.
Imagine Windows without DirectX, it would become the number one business application framework.
i see… thanks! 
Originally posted by zen:
DirectFB AFAIK is just a light X implementation based on the framebuffer, it has nothing to do with GL. DirectFBGL is the GL implementation for DirectFB and as it says on the page its ripped off DRI code.
No, DirectFB is not an X implementation.
And once you got things up and running (ie. DFB/DFBGL) it’s indeed very easy to query a GL context using IDirectFBSurface::GetGL
(that’s it, no stupid GLX, WGL, AGL, PGL or whatever other wiggle-type library)
/me’s still hoping for DirectFB to become the new standard for graphics on Linux, it rocks.
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